Prof. Dr. Nikolai Kuzmich Vereschagin, a prominent Russian paleontologist, nationally and internationally known as “The Mammoth Expert” tragically died on October 27, 2008 at the age of 99 years, about three weeks short of his 100th birthday.

Nikolai K. Vereschagin, the grandchild of Nikolai Vasilievich Vereschagin, the most influential dairy expert in Russia in the19th century, and the third cousin of the prominent battle artist Vasilii V. Vereschagin, was born on November 21, 1908 in the small village Petrovka of the Vologda District.  Interestingly, nearby are the sites with the late and latest mammoths in European Russia (Cherepovets vicinity), including the “Zhidikovo Peat bog” site, the “Sheksna River Mouth site” and the “Yagorba River Mouth” site (Dr. Vereschagin consulted on mammoth bone identifications at the Yagorba River mouth site).

Soon after graduation from the Moscow Zootechnical Institute in 1929, while being employed by the Zhitkov Research Institute for Game and Fur-bearer Propagation in 1930-1934, young Nikolai directed introductions of muskrat in the Irtysh River basin, one of the first introductions of the species in the USSR. In 1935 – 1940 Dr. Vereschagin worked for the Zoological Institute, Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences in Baku, Azerbaijan Republic, where he studied modern mammals of the Apsheron Peninsula and game mammals of the Caucasus Mountains. In 1939 he defended his PhD dissertation on nutria biology and acclimatization. In 1949 - 1990 Dr. Vereschagin was employed by the Zoological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, where he headed the Laboratory of Mammals from 1968 through 1974. During the years 1974 to 1995 he was head of the Fauna’s History Department.

In 1954 Dr. Vereschagin was awarded the Doctor of Science Degree after defending his dissertation “The Mammals of Caucasus. A History of the Evolution of the Fauna” published as a book in Russian in 1959. The book was translated in English in 1967 and instantly became an international scientific bestseller and the main paleontological guide for the region and for comparisons with other paleontological sites worldwide.

Dr. Vereschagin’s late 1940s and 1950s were filled by numerous field seasons and trips to different part of the USSR, lab work, material analyses and publishing a variety of papers on the Pleistocene fauna and mammals of southern Russian Plain, Crimea, Caucasus, the lower Ural River region, Siberia, Kazakhstan and Transbailkalia. His publications included an extensive overview and analyses of the Tamanian Pleistocene fauna, and the first reports on finding moose (1948) and macaque (1957) remains in the Pleistocene of Caucasus.

During the 1960s, Dr. Verescahgin studied systematic and taxonomic positions of modern and extinct cats and bears. He was involved in extensive paleontological work on archeological sites in the Ural Mountains, Western Siberia and Far East (Russian Primorie). This enriched field experience and his personal hunting experience, allowed him to suggest methods for Paleolithic big game procurement.

In the 1970s, Dr. Vereschagin headed paleontological expeditions to the later well-known “Berelekh Mammoth Boneyard” site on the Berelekh River in Yakutia Republic. Here, he and his colleagues collected more than 8,000 bones, belonging to at least 140 woolly mammoth individuals, from sand lenses formed by the River. The rescue expedition was performed just in time: within a few seasons the site was completely washed out by the river.

In the early 1970s Dr. Vereschagin revitalized the Scientific Mammoth Committee of the USSR founded in 1948, and led the organization from 1972 to 1995. With his leadership the Committee organized seven Russian workshops on mammoth and mammoth fauna studies, and the 1st International Mammoth Conference (IMC) that took place in St. Petersburg in 1995. Dr. Vereschagin attended all but the 4th IMC in 2007, having been the Honorary Chair and consistently attracting attention with his presentations.

The 1970s through the 1980s saw Dr. Vereschagin’s research focused on evolution of Pleistocene fauna. He extensively analyzed the morphology of mammoth skeleton and tusks, studied the morphology and ecology of the extinct Pleistocene horse, steppe bison (Bison priscus), and cave lion and published several papers on the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, which he explained resulted from the combined effects of climate change, hunting and biological/ecological factors.  

Dr. Verescahgin made substantial contributions to science studying skeletons and carcasses of adult and baby mammoths found in Russia. After the sensational discovery of baby mammoth Dima in Eastern Siberia by the local gold-mine worker in 1977, Dr. Vereschagin organized and led a team of international researchers studying the unique specimen, publishing a series of papers followed by the book “The Magadan Mammoth Calf” (in Russian). He also participated in excavations and studies of the Khatanga (1977) and Yuribei (1979) mammoths, and consulted with other researchers on the frozen carcasses of Jarkov (1997) and Yukagir (2002) mammoths from Siberia.

Dr. Vereschagin was involved in studying the mummified body of the baby mammoth Masha (1999) and was consulting the international team of researchers formed for systematic studies of the most complete baby mammoth ever found, Lyuba (2007); both females northern Western Siberia.

He traveled, lectured and participated in many scientific conferences abroad, including France, Yugoslavia, Japan, USA and very recently, Africa (Kenya). He was a member of International Council for Archeozoology and other scientific societies including the honorary memberships in the All-Russian Theriological Society and the Czechoslovakia Zoological Society. Dr. Vereschagin earned many high awards including the “Honorary Scientist of Russia” and the “Honorary Member of the Peter the Great Academy of Science” (1998).

From 1970 to 1982 Dr. Verescahgin was editor of the special paleontological series of the "Proceedings of the Zoological Institute," a yearly volume of papers devoted to Pleistocene paleontology within the former Soviet Union. He was the author of more than 280 scientific papers, popular publications and eight monographs. His publications range from deep analyses of faunas to taxonomical and taphonomical research, and to popular books, as the “Why did Mammoths Become Extinct?” (1979), “The Memoirs of a Paleontologist” (1981) “Zoological Journeys” (1986), “Exterior of the Mammoth” (1999; English version) and “From Muskrat to Mammoth: the Life of a Zoologist” (2002). Just few months ago Dr. Vereschagin finished his last book “My Century. Memoirs and Science Work” (in Russian), which was accepted for publication by the Publisher “7-ya Bukva” in Tver, Russia. It is sad that the author will never see it published. 

Having had a deep interest in the Pleistocene Megafauna and being an experienced field collector through his science career, Dr. Vereschagin had a comprehensive approach in studying paleontological sites he was involved in. When searching for and collecting megafauna remains, he collected insects, plants, birds and fish to build up collections for future generations of scientists. His research, papers and books were powerful, riveting and thought provoking, attracting to him many students from different parts of the USSR. Students learned much from him and his publications. Dr. Vereschagin’s scientific advisor capacity and supervision of 14 PhD and three Doctors of Sciences students was tough and challenging. He significantly contributed to the success of their dissertations and future growth in their science careers.

From his full retirement in 1990 until the very end, Dr. Vereschagin continued a very active life working in his “reserved” office at the Zoological Institute, and at home; publishing papers, attending scientific conferences, consulting the public and scientists, and hunting big game. Dr. Vereschagin was always eager to go to conferences related to his studies. Due to his age he had problems receiving permission from officials to travel abroad, but he continued fighting for every scientific trip and often won.

Through all his life Dr. Vereschagin has been a maverick and brave fighter for his opinion and independent thoughts, and has never hesitated to tell “inconvenient truth” to administrators and officials. He made his life career honestly, without compromising with political authorities. The bright scientist, original thinker, teacher, talented writer, self-taught artist, and passionate game hunter and paleontologist will be sorely missed by all his family, friends and colleagues.
 
Olga Potapova
Collections Curator/Manager
The Hot Springs Mammoth Site, Inc.
PO BOX 692
1800 HWY 18 BYPASS
HOT SPRINGS, SD 57747
tel (605)745-6017 fax (605)745-3038
olgapot@mammothsite.org
www.mammothsite.com

Dr. Roald L. Potapov
Zoological Museum
Zoological Institute
Russian Academy of Sciences
University emb., 1
199034 St. Petersburg
Russia; museum@zin.ru 
http://www.zin.ru/index_e.htm

Top photo: Dr. N. Vereschagin sorting out the Pleistocene bison and horse bones collected by the 3rd IMC participants during the field trip to the paleontological sites in vicinity of Dawson, Canada. May 2003. Photo by Olga Potapova.

Bottom photo: From the left: Eddy Clay, Dr. N. Vereschagin, Dr. Larry Agenbroad (The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, SD), and Clara Clay. 3rd International mammoth Conference field trip, Yukon, Canada, May 2003. Photo by O. Potapova.

Cyril Walker, formerly curator of fossil birds in the Natural History Museum, died after a long illness on Wednesday, 6 May 2009, aged 70.

Cyril joined the staff of the then British Museum (Natural History) in 1958 as a scientific assistant and, apart from two years National Service in the Royal Army Education Corps, spent his entire career in the Museum, progressing through a series of promotions to senior scientific officer in 1985. His career was a combination of curation and research; his particular research expertise lay in fossil birds, backed up by his considerable renown as an enthusiastic bird watcher with a world-wide life list. He enjoyed a productive research collaboration with the late Colin Harrison, who worked in the Natural History Museum’s Sub-department of Ornithology at Tring, and together they published a series of papers through the 1970s on Mesozoic and Cenozoic birds, notably the rich avifauna from the Lower Eocene of the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. Cyril’s most outstanding research finding was his recognition of a new subclass of fossils birds, Enantiornithes, based on very incomplete skeletons from the latest Cretaceous in Argentina, which he published in Nature in 1981. Because the material was incomplete and lacked any skulls, his work was not seen as particularly significant at that time. Today, however, his work is recognized as a hugely important discovery in the history of avian palaeontology and he was gratified to see the growing discoveries and literature on enantiornithines, now much better understood as the dominant group of Cretaceous birds. He made a late return to Mesozoic bird research, publishing in 2007 (with Eric Buffetaut and Gareth Dyke) a final paper that outlined his early views on enantiornithines and the background to his discovery.

Cyril also developed an interest in fossil turtles and wrote a series of papers on trionychoid turtles with Dick Moody of Kingston Polytechnic/University and together with Moody, Sandra Chapman of the NHM, Gene Gaffney and Peter Meylan described important new genera from Mali and the Isle of Wight. He also wrote many popular articles on ornithology and several guides on birds and fossils. Cyril was a fine and generous colleague with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the collections in his care. He welcomed many research visitors from around the world and always put himself out to be helpful, supportive and convivial. He regarded it as a part of the job to introduce colleagues to the delights of English beer in the ‘Hoop and Toy’ pub. Cyril was a big personality,

Cyril was joint leader of a number of trans-Saharan expeditions in which the Natural History Museum participated. These expeditions gave him opportunities to demonstrate his talent as a brilliant field cook. He was a great ambassador who loved his subject and was proud to represent the Museum and his country in the driest parts of Africa. He took part in an ill-fated expedition to the Sokoto Basin in Nigeria with the Bev and Jenny Halstead, Eric Buffetaut and Dick Moody in 1979. As a result of internal political and academic tensions, an attempt was made to sabotage the project. The team were staying at a house prior to starting their work when it was surrounded at dawn by Nigerian troops and police. The Europeans were arrested and taken to a military barracks, and the same afternoon were “tried” — without any legal representation — by the local governor, an army general. The charge was attempting to steal “antiquities.” Having been found guilty, they were sent to Lagos, where they were interrogated at the somewhat infamous Ikoyi police establishment. Subterfuge ruled however, and a deal was offered by a secret police officer that the group would be supported if they stayed and said nothing. Dick Moody and Eric Buffetaut opted to leave the country (albeit as FBI Agents) whereas Cyril and the Halsteads were kept under house arrest in Ibadan. All were threatened they could expect several years in a Nigerian jail. In the event, after a month they were allowed to leave the country. Throughout this ordeal, Cyril remained his usual sanguine self and when the restraint of the house arrest was lifted — hired a taxi with the Halsteads to take them back to the Sokoto Basin, where he managed to collect some fossil turtle skulls which, strangely, disappeared on the way out of the country. 

Cyril also took part in a joint expedition to the Cretaceous of Queensland in Australia in 1978 with Alan Charig of the NHM, Barry Cox (King’s College London) and Dave Norman (then at Queen Mary College, London), together with a Queensland team led by Alan Bartholomai of Queensland Museum that discovered, among other things, the earliest herring. He led the Natural History Museum’s contingent (including Andy Currant, Phil Crabb, Angela Milner and Peter Whybrow) to Niger in 1988 with Dick Moody’s Kingston Polytechnic (now The University of Kingston) crew. The expedition collected Cretaceous dinosaur material near Agadez and featured in Sir David Attenborough’s BBC television series "Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives."

Cyril took on the task of planning and co-ordinating the move from the Natural History Museum’s outstation store at Ruislip to Wandsworth between 1990 and 1995 while continuing to spend one day a week on fossil bird curation and research. His final post was in the Bird Section at Tring from 1996 until he retired in February 1999. In retirement, he continued his bird research and publication on a collaborative basis until last year when his health began to fail.

Cyril leaves his long-term partner and latterly his wife, Judy Greenwood, and a step- family, with whom he found peace and contentment over more than twenty years. Gareth Dyke and Larry Martin have convened a special symposium on Mesozoic birds in Cyril’s honour during the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s first European meeting at the University of Bristol in September 2009. He knew of these plans and felt very honoured. Many of his colleagues fervently hoped he would be well enough to attend the meeting but it was not to be.


Angela Milner
Associate Keeper of Palaeontology
The Natural History Museum

Richard Moody
Emeritus Professor
Kingston University London

Gareth Dyke
University College Dublin 

Photo ©John Gooders.

Ann Schaffer (Elder), a member of SVP since 1985,  was born to Rebecca and Jimmy Schaffer in Feagaville, Maryland, on April 7, 1958.  She was taken from this life suddenly on March 31 as a result of complications from emergency surgery.
Ann earned a BA in geology from the University of Vermont, and a MS in geology/paleontology at Utah State University.

Ann began her career with the National Park Service in 1984 at Fossil Butte National Monument as a park technician. She then moved to Dinosaur National Monument and served there as a geology technician, paleontologist and museum curator.

Ann worked in the field and lab for sixteen years as a paleontologist, and made countless contributions to the field through excavations, publications and presentations at interagency and professional society meetings. Among her many contributions, Ann and a coworker were credited with the excavation and preparation of a new species of Allosaurus. In the lab, Ann skillfully prepared many significant specimens that were new to science. Her work as the first full-performance museum curator at the park helped ensure the future safe-keeping and protection of the park's vast collection. As curator, Ann set up guidelines and planning documents to guarantee that the collection would be managed appropriately in the future, conducted a 100% inventory of the collection, helped catalog nearly one million cultural and natural history items, and facilitated a Web-based exhibit of the park's fossils.

Starting in September 2008, during the final phase of her career, Ann was selected as chief of resource management at Colorado National Monument.  Her focus expanded beyond vertebrate paleontology to include the park’s historic structures, museum collections and archives, archeological surveys and wildlife management.  However, she continued to help other parks with paleontological issues as well.

Ann's expertise was called upon by other park units and government agencies throughout her career. She conducted museum program assessments, and paleontology surveys and excavations at several parks throughout the NPS, including Curecanti NRA, Grand Teton NP, Badlands National Park and Fossil Butte NM. Ann also aided the FBI in the seizure of a T. Rex from a commercial collector, helped ensure its safe preservation and provided support during the resulting court trial.

The National Park Service honored Ann on several occasions for her outstanding service.  She was given an award in 1993 for her work as the co-chair for the Third Conference on Fossil Resources in the NPS.  In 2005, her success at obtaining project funds in support of museum archives cataloging, coordinating GPRA, and using volunteer help was credited at Dinosaur National Monument.  Ann was also a recipient of the Intermountain Region Appleman-Judd Award for Cultural Resource Protection in 2004. This prestigious award is given each year to a handful of NPS employees for their valuable work in cultural resource management.

Ann Elder was a very special friend and colleague.  She was always willing to help and reach out to those in need.  Ann was also respected for her integrity.  She was never shy about speaking out on important issues. Her work was always at the highest standard.  She was respected and loved by all who knew her.

She is survived by her devoted husband, Tom Elder, of Vernal, Utah; her mother Becky Schaffer; her sister Sue, her brother Gary, and numerous nephews and nieces. She leaves behind her Aussie Shepherd, Cedar, and English Cocker Spaniel, Stikine, who were also very much a part of her life.

In lieu of flowers – Tom has requested donations in Ann’s name to the Mar-Lu-Ridge Organization which hosts camps for youth and others. Ann worked at Mar-Lu-Ridge as a camp counselor. Ann and Tom were married at the camp. The Web site is: http://www.mar-lu-ridge.org/. They are seeking donations to offer scholarships for campers for this summer. Address: Mar-Lu-Ridge, Conference and Educational Center, Office of the Executive Director, 3200 Mar-Lu-Ridge Rd., Jefferson, MD 21755
A memorial service was held in both Maryland at Mar-Lu-Ridge and in Vernal, Utah at St. James Catholic Church.

Please visit Sympathy Tree. com to add your thoughts about Ann – search Ann Schaffer Elder or use the link below:
http://www.sympathytree.com/annschafferelder1958/
  
Obituary Contributors:
Joan Anzelmo, Superintendent, Colorado National Monument
Rachel Benton, Park Paleontologist, Badlands National Park
Scott Foss, Regional Paleontologist, BLM - Utah State Office
Scott Madsen, Utah Geological Survey

Photo courtesy of NPS.